Army Of GhostsDoomsday Novelisation
by Josman
Summary: The Doctor and Rose finally get led to Torchwood, where they soon discover dangerous experiments are taking place, which could lead to war between two of the universe's most feared races, with humanity caught in the middle.
1. The Ghosts

**Disclaimer: I disclaim everything(ish.)**

 **Army Of Ghosts**

 _In 1986, Rose Tyler was born on the Planet Earth. Just over 20 years later, that was where she died. For the first nineteen years of her life, nothing happened. Nothing at all. Not ever. And then she met a man called the Doctor. A man who could change his face. And he took her away from home in his magical machine. He showed her the whole of time and space. She thought she would be with him for ever._

 _But then came the army of ghosts. Then came Torchwood and the war. And that's when it all ended. This is the story of how she died._

 **Chapter 1: The Ghosts**

The story began pleasantly enough, with the TARDIS materialising in a playground near the Powell Estate. They couldn't stop in the Powell Estate itself too often or the perception filters would cease to affect the locals.

The Doctor and Rose made their way up to her mother's flat and let themselves in. "Mum, we're back."

Jackie hurried out of the kitchen and seized her in a hug. "Oh, I don't know why you bother with that phone! You never use it! Oh, I love you!"

"I love you." Rose grinned.

As they hugged, the Doctor tried to slip past them towards the sofa, but Jackie rounded on him. "Oh no you don't. Come here!" She Grabbed the Doctor and kissed him. "You're all mine."

"Just, just, just put me down."

"Yes you are!" She insisted.

Rose had pulled out a large bag and a small metal urn. "I've got lots of washing for you." Of course, there were laundry facilities back on the TARDIS, but they'd been malfunctioning lately. Last time she'd put some shirts in there, she'd got a pile off cotton plants and a lamb out the machine. Next, she handed her mother the urn. "I've also got you this, from some asteroid bazaar. It's made of... What's it called?"

"Bazoolium." Said the Doctor.

"Bazoolium. When it gets cold, yeah, it means it's going to rain. When it's hot, it's going to be sunny. You can use it to tell the weather. Isn't that brilliant?" She grinned in a very Doctorish way.

"I've got a surprise for you an' all."

"Oh, I get her Bazoolium, she doesn't even say thanks." Rose rolled her eyes, again, much like the Doctor.

"You're just in time. He'll be here at ten past. Guess who's coming to visit."

"Dunno."

"Go on, guess."

"Mum, I hate guessing. Just tell me."

"It's your Granddad. Granddad Prentice. He's on his way any minute. Anyway, cup of tea." She disappeared into the kitchen.

Rose had gone pale. "She's mad."

"Tell me something new." The Doctor grinned.

"Granddad Prentice, that's her dad. But he died, like, ten years ago. Wow. She's lost it." She took a breath and followed her into the kitchen. "Mum? What you just said about granddad."

"Any second now."

"He died." Rose said as gently as possible. "His heart gave out. Do you remember?"

"Of course I remember." Jackie said, nonchalantly.

Rose wondered if she and the Doctor would need to stay with her for a while, just until she was alright. "Then how can he come back?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself? Ten past. Here he comes." The air above the kitchen counter seemed to shimmer briefly, before a pale grey figure appeared there, stepping through the worktop and out on to the kitchen floor. It was vaguely humanoid in shape but was also eerily smooth and translucent. Only the outline was clear. "Here we are then. Dad, say hello to Rose. Hasn't she grown?"

Without another word, the Doctor and Rose bolted from the flat and down the stairs to have a look around. Outside, around 10 more ghosts were strolling about.

"Doctor, look out!" Shouted Rose.

The Doctor spun round, just in time to see a ghost walk straight through him. It did no harm, but it wasn't a pleasant sensation. Fortunately, none of the ghosts around the square seemed to be out to hurt anybody.

Jackie had followed behind, looking at her watch. "You haven't got long. Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes."

"Since when did ghosts come in shifts?" The Docctor said, before realising what he'd just said and adding. "Since when did shifts come in ghosts? What's going on?"

"Oh, he's not happy when I know more than him, is he?" Jackie grinned. She'd been rehearsing this conversation in her head since the start.

The Doctor looked round at the others in the square. A cyclist was idly weaving between the ghosts. A couple of teenagers were trying to chat one of the ghosts up and some younger kids were using a couple of stationary ghosts as goalposts. "No one's screaming or panicking."

"Should we?" Said Jackie. "Hold on, nearly 12 past."

* * *

In another part of London, two scientists pulled two massive leavers. The ghosts everywhere vanished. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to announce we've just measured the ghost energy at five terawatts. Give yourselves a round of applause."

* * *

In search of enlightenment, the Doctor turned on the TV. It didn't disappoint. There was a weatherman drawing patterns of ghosts across the country. A police spokesman making a statement that there was no cause for alarm, and sounding like he did this every day. A shopping channel attempting to sell ghost cleaning products. An evangelist preacher declaring the ghosts a sign that the end was near. A paranormal investigator, struggling to find something else to search for. A woman on a chat show who'd married a ghost. A session of Parliament debating whether to reduce the threat level to green or not. A Japanese game show, offering a ghost as a prize. French and American news stations talking about ghosts over there.

"It's all over the world." Said the Doctor.

He changed the channel again. _Eastenders_ this time. Peggy, the bar woman, was shouting at someone in the pub. "Listen to me, Den Watts! I don't care if you have come back from the grave. Get out of my pub! The only spirits I'm serving in this place are gin, whisky and vodka. So, you heard me. Get out!"

The Doctor turned off the telly and turned to Jackie. "How did it start?"

"Well, first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down..."

"I mean worldwide!"

"Oh. That was about two months ago. Just happened. Woke up one morning, and there they all were. Ghosts, everywhere. We all ran round screaming and that. Whole planet was panicking. No sign of you, thank you very much. Then it sort of sank in. It took us time to realise that we're lucky."

"What makes you think it's Granddad?" Said Rose.

"Oh, I can just tell. I can smell the cigarette smoke on his clothes. Can't you smell it?"

Rose sighed. "I wish I could Mum, but I can't."

Jackie smiled. "You've got to want it sweetheart."

"The more you want it, the stronger it gets." Said the Doctor.

"Sort of, yeah."

"Sort of like a psychic link. Of course you want it, you want your old Dad to be alive. But you're wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in."

Jackie frowned. "You're spoiling it."

"I'm sorry Jackie. But there's no smell. There's no cigarettes. There's just a memory."

"But if they're not real. How come they look human?" Jackie said in a satisfied way.

"She's got a point there." Said Rose. "I mean, they're human shaped. See through, but definitely human."

The Doctor pondered "Maybe. Maybe not. They're imprinting themselves on this world. But a footprint doesn't look like a boot."

* * *

Yvonne couldn't be prouder with her team. In just a couple of months, they'd come to the verge of an achievement that less enlightened researchers had spent their lives trying to crack. In a short time, they would be remembered alongside Stevenson and Brunel, as the people who had hoisted their nation head and shoulders over the rest of the world.

All that she'd needed was a bit of leadership. Set clear targets but let them approach at their own pace. And always keep in touch with them. As such, she once more did the rounds in the main office, checking each of the four operatives she had overseeing every aspect of the ghost shifts.

She came to the final one. A promising girl called Adiola Jones, or Adi, as she liked to call her. A girl who'd recently left Cambridge with degrees in several branches of science which officially didn't exsist. "So what've we got? Any sign of that power loss?"

"Nope." Said Adi. "Must've been a glitch last time."

"Very good." She touched her finger to the earpiece they all used to communicate within the building. "Rajesh, you got anything?"

* * *

"Yeah." Said Rajesh. "I'm on Soduku book 509." If this project in this dingy little chamber achieved nothing else, at least it would produce a Soduku expert by the end.

"We've just had a great ghost shift." Yvone's voice said in his ear.

"I know. We got nothing." He put his book down and went to have a look at the little semi circle of scanning devices pointed at the end of the chamber. "Did they tell you? RND came up with a new spectrometer yesterday. Barged in here, all full of themselves. Said they could detect the heat off a single protozoa through half a mile of steel."

"It gave them nothing. Same as ever. The machines keep saying that the sphere can't exist. But there it is." At the far end, suspended ten feet in the air, was a massive black sphere. Utterly black, not even a glimmer of light around the edges. If it weren't for their ability to look at it from different angles, they wouldn't have known it was a sphere at all. Just a circle of black. Utterly identical from whatever direction you looked at it.

Anything we can do?" Said Yvonne.

"No, I'm alright. It's just, it gets in your head this thing. Like it's starring at you."

Yvonne audibly nodded. "All right. We'll catch up later."

Rajesh went up to the stepladder. Some part of his mind tempting him to repeat one of the few tests that produced a result. He climbed up below the sphere and reached out. His hand stopped as it reached the surface. He could touch the sphere but he couldn't feel it. There wasn't even a pressure sensation. He tried pressing harder and his hand slid out around the curved surface. They'd worked out early on that the sphere had no coefficient of friction.

He turned away and went to find a way to distract himself. "Sebastian. Fancy another game of hangman?"

* * *

"Matt, get on to hospitality, will you? Send Rajesh something. He's going mad down there." Said Yvonne, before adding "Not alcohol."

Next to her, Adeola was taking the report one of the messengers had handed her. Well, typing that up would keep her occupied for another ten minutes, and she had half an hour to the next shift. Looking over at Gareth, who was the world's foremost expert on dimensional energy, she had a thought and typed an internal message to him. _I'm relay bored._

 _Me too yawn._ He typed back.

 _Want 2 go for coffee?_

 _Thought youd never ask. :)_

He got Yvonne's attention. "I'm just going to check the stacks, just in case."

"Alright, fine."

"I'm just going to cross reference levels with the sphere." Said Adeola.

"No problem."

Yvonne watched them go, then turned to the others, who were wearing similar grins. "And they think we haven't noticed."

* * *

On their way back from the kitchen, Gareth had an idea and led her down to one side, where one wall was covered in plastic sheeting. Through the door, they could see a similar room covered in the stuff, with equipment strewn around. "W should be fine down here. Just two minutes."

"But it's out of bounds!"

"That's the point. No one will see us." He grinned.

"What about the workmen?"

Gareth thought for a moment. "They must be allocated somewhere else."

"It's not worth it. For a snog."

"It is. Come on." He ducked through. Adeola hesitated for a moment. In that time, she heard a clunk and turned to see two workmen collecting their stepladder. She hurriedly tried to look as though she was just passing through. Fortunately, the men weren't too bothered and greeted her before taking their stuff elsewhere.

"Gareth?" She called, but got no response. "Now, don't be daft, where've you gone? Gareth! Look, I'm going to head back. I'm seeing you tonight anyway. Gareth? I'm going to go back to work."

But she didn't. It was her taste for excitement which had got her into this job in the first place. Instead, she stepped through. Inside, she found she could barely see a few feet in front of her, the plastic sheets stretched from floor to ceiling, in a labyrinthine pattern. "This is it. I'm going. See you. Now stop it, Gareth. I'm not kidding, just stop it!" But she pushed on anyway.

Behind one of the sheets, she spotted a figure. "Sorry. I was looking for my friend. He came in here..." Pushing the sheet aside, she screamed at what she saw, but was quickly silenced as a metal hand clamped over her mouth.


	2. Torchwood

**Chapter 2: Torchwood**

Rose came into the TARDIS waving a newspaper. The Doctor was tinkering with something beneath the floor. "According to this, they've elected a ghost as the mayor of Leeds. We're not just going to sit back are we?"

The Doctor sprang up with a power pack on his back, goggles on his face and a scanner that vaguely resembled a proton pack in his hands. "Who you gonna call?"

"Ghost Busters!" Rose sang.

"I ain't afraid of no ghost!" He hurried outside, where Jackie was waiting, looking despondent. "When's the next shift?"

"Three minutes. But don't go causing trouble." She said.

The Doctor pressed a button on the scanner and it divided into three poles, which he stuck in the ground in a triangle around a spot where some kids had said the ghost of their late school bully was appearing.

"What'll that do?" Said Rose.

"Triangulate the signal. I can find out what's bringing them here."

"Don't suppose it's the Gelth?" Rose offered.

"No. They were just coming through that one place. This lot are transposing themselves all over the planet, like tracing paper."

"You're always doing this. Reducing it to science." Said Jackie. "Why can't it be real?" When the Doctor ignored her, she added. "Think about it though. All those people we've lost coming back. Isn't that wonderful?"

"I think it's horrific." The Doctor unravelled a long cable from his bag and plugged it into the TARDIS console, before beckoning Rose over. "When the scanners activate, that line goes into the red. If it doesn't stop..." He handed her the sonic. "Setting 15B. Hold it for eight seconds. You got that?"

"15B, eight seconds." She nodded.

"If it stays on blue, activate the deep scan, which is..."

"Hold on, I know this one." Said Rose. "That one." She pointed at a switch.

"Er... close." He shrugged.

She pointed at the switch next to it. "That one?"

"Aaand now you've just killed us all." He grinned.

"Sorry." She pointed to the switch on the other side. "That one?"

"Yeah! Now, we've got, what, two minutes to go?"

* * *

At the same time, Yvonne was busy preparing for the next ghost shift. "Two minutes to go. Positions everybody."

At this point, Adeola and Gareth strolled back into the office and apologised for their lateness. Yvonne made a mental note to have a chat with them later about the appropriate length of time for a check of the stacks.

"And powering up." Said Yvonne. As Adeola and Gareth took their place at their desks, the men in lab coats pulled the levers into position.

* * *

Jackie watched her daughter operating the controls, with much more familiarity that the way she'd had a year ago. This life was becoming home to her now.

"What's the line doing?" The Doctor called from outside.

"It's alright, it's holding!" She called back.

"You even look like him." Said Jackie.

"Do I? Yeah, I suppose so." She smiled.

"You've changed so much."

"For the better." Rose picked up the sadness in her mother's voice.

"I suppose."

"Mum, I used to work in a shop."

"I've worked in lots of shops. What's wrong with that?"

"I didn't mean it like that." She said quickly.

"Yeah, I know what you meant. But what happens when I'm gone?"  
"Mum, don't talk like that."

"Really though. When I'm dead and buried. You won't have any reason to come home. Think you'll ever settle down?"

"Well the Doctor can't so neither can I. I'll just keep travelling."

"And you'll keep on changing. And in forty years time, fifty, there'll be this woman, this strange woman, walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. But she's not Rose Tyler. Not anymore. She's not even human."

Rose wasn't sure what to say to that. Fortunately, the Doctor chose this moment to interrupt. "Here we go!"

"The scanner's working!" She shouted. "It says... delta one six."

"Come on then, you beauty!" Shouted the Doctor.

Before him, a ghost faded into existence, But soon found itself being buffeted back and fourth by a pyramid of electromagnetic charge. The Doctor pulled on some 3D glasses and twiddled some knobs on the scanner he was holding. "Now where do you come from?"

* * *

In the lever room, an alarm sounded. "What's happening?" Said Yvonne, hurrying over to the nearest operative, Matt was his name.

"Someone's interfering with the ghost field." He said. "Someone's doing it deliberately this time."

"Right. Shut everything down." She said.

* * *

The ghost seemed aware of the Doctor and reached for him like it was trying to swat a fly, but couldn't get through the charge.

"Not so friendly now, are you?" The Doctor grinned. "Don't like this then?"

At this point, the shift ended early and the ghosts all vanished. The news people looked for a change in conditions that might explain it. The crew on _EastEnders_ had to abruptly cut a filming session short, a ghost cleaning product tester asked if he'd done something wrong and the Police spokesman explained that this new course for the ghosts was no cause for alarm.

But the Doctor wasn't bothered. He'd got everything he needed. He hurriedly gathered up his things to bring them back to the TARDIS.

* * *

"It was a very specific excitation of the ghost field," Matt explained, "and that makes it easy to pinpoint. Almost there South London. South East fifteen. It's a council estate. The Powell Estate. SU15 7GO. It was a public area."

"Can you hack into the CCTV?" Said Yvonne.

"Doing it now... Here we go. Camera within 50 yards."

On the screen, there came up an image of the Doctor shooing away two kids who'd climbed on top of the TARDIS, before hurrying in and closing the door.

"Oh wow. It's him!" She gasped.

* * *

"I said so!" The Doctor was explaining. "Those ghosts have been forced into existence from one specific point, and I can track the source." He plugged his scanner into the console and pulled the handbrake. "Allons y!" The TARDIS set off with a shudder.

* * *

Yvonne watched as the TARDIS dematerialised. If he was investigating the ghosts, that only meant one thing. "He's coming. She touched her finger to her earpiece. "Rajesh, he's coming. The Doctor."

Rajesh leapt up with excitement and hurried over to the sphere. "Now we've got you."

* * *

"I like that. Allons y. I should say allons y more often. Allons y. Watch out, Rose Tyler. Allons y. And then, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Alonso, because then I could say, allons y, Alonso, every time." At this point, the Doctor realised that Rose was giving him a slightly awkward look. "You're staring at me."

"My Mum's still on board." She said.

In the excitement, the Doctor had forgotten about her. Now he looked over and saw her sitting on one of the catwalks. "If we end up on mars, I'm going to kill you." She said.

Still, couldn't hurt to take her along for at least one adventure. And it was too late to worry now anyway, since they were just materialising. He turned on the scanner, to reveal about a dossen soldiers in urban camouflage forming up outside.

"Well, there goes the advantage of surprise." He shrugged, before heading for the door. "Still, cuts to the chase. Stay behind and look after Jackie."

"I'm not looking after my mum!" Said Rose.

"You brought her."

"I was kidnapped!" Jackie insisted.

Rose hurried ahead of him and stood across the door. "Doctor, they've got guns."

"And I don't, which makes me the better person. They can shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine." He stepped out and put his hands up as the soldiers all cocked their guns.

The Doctor had been through this routine plenty of times and he mentally prepared himself for the various responses he dreaded, such as "We shoot spies in this place." Or "He's clearly an evil spirit!" He didn't expect what happened next.

A woman in a business suit stepped through the soldiers, grinning wildly. "Oh, that is amazing!" And she clapped. The soldiers lowered their weapons slightly and joined her.

"Um, thanks." He said, lowering his hands slightly. "I'm the Doctor."

"Oh, I'll say." She said, and they all clapped again. "The Doctor and the TARDIS!"

The Doctor was beginning to worry that these people may be something far worse than enemies: Fans. "You've heard of me then?"

"Of course we have. None of us would be here if it wasn't for you."

"And you are?"

"Oh there'll be time for that later. But you're not one for travelling alone are you? The Doctor and his companion. That's the pastern. There's no point in denying it. Where is she?"

The Doctor thought for a moment. "Oh, sorry. She's just a little shy." He reached round the door. "Here she is, Rose Tyler!"

Jackie felt him grab her arm and he whisked her out the door before she had time to respond. By the way the Doctor was grinning, she assumed he'd done it deliberately and tried to look like she did this all the time.

"She's not the best I've ever had." The Doctor was saying. "A bit too blonde. Not too steady on her pins. A bit gobby. And last week, she stared into the heart of the time vortex and aged 57 years."

"I'm 40!" Jackie briefly forgot she was supposed to be inconspicuous.

"Deluded, bless." The Doctor grinned, while Jackie flexed her fingers to avoid another outburst. "I'll have to trade her in. Do you need anyone? She's very good at tea. Well, I say very good, I mean not bad. Well, I say not bad. Anyway, lead on. Allons y. But not too fast. Her ankle's going."

"I'll show you where my ankle's going." She hissed.

Back in the TARDIS, Rose was watching everything on the scanner. If he'd taken Jackie in her place, he clearly needed her to do something. She just had to think what.

* * *

Following the woman, who'd introduced herself as Yvonne, down the corridor, Jackie tried hard to think what Rose might say in these circumstances. Eventually, she decided that none of these people had met Rose so she could say what she liked.

"It was only a matter of time before you found us." Said Yvonne, as they approached a set of double doors. "Welcome to Torchwood."

The hall she led them into looked like Q's lab more than anything else, strewn with bizarre technology and people conducting tests. But it was much larger and the devices were clearly not of human origin. A man in a lab coat was disassembling a Askarian Eradicator gun. A second scientist was taking energy readings off a plasma bolt. Two more had got their hands on Beetlejuician laser swords, and were recreating Jedi fights when they thought no one was looking.

One thing in particular got the Doctor's attention. A medium sized spaceship, up on scaffolding towards the back of the hall. "That's a Jafal sunglider!"

"Came down off the Shetland Islands two years ago." Said Yvonne.

"Crashed?"

"We shot it down. It violated our airspace." She shrugged. "We stripped it for parts. The gun that shot down the Sycorax on Christmas day, that was us. She smiled at the obvious looks of suppressed rage on the Doctor's face. "Now, if you'd like to come with me."

She led them through a series of work benches, where a variety of technical tests were underway. The Doctor noticed some of the scientists were wearing alien jewellery, presumably looted from some spacecraft or other.

"Torchwood has a motto." Said Yvonne. "If it's alien, it's ours. Everything we find we test and catalogue, for the good of the British Empire."

"The what?" Said Jackie.

"The British Empire."

"There is no British Empire!"

"Not yet." She shrugged. "Now what do you make of this Doctor?" She picked up a device from a table.

It was missing it's casing and there were loose wires trailing from it, but there was no mistaking it. "That's a particle gun."

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Said Yvonne. "Took us eight years to get it to work."

"It's the 21st century. You can't have particle guns." The Doctor felt like he was watching a Cavalier riding around on a tank.

"We must defend our borders from the aliens." Yvonne said casually, as she handed the gun back to the soldier who'd brought it. "Thank you, Sebastian isn't it?"

"Yes Ma'am." Said Sebastian.

"It's important to learn everyone's names." Said Yvonne. "Torchwood is a very modern organisation. I'm a people person you see."

"Have you got anyone called Alonso?" Said the Doctor.

She thought for a moment. "I don't think so. Is that important?"

"I suppose not." He took a look at a couple more devices, which looked a lot less lethal than the particle gun.

"Ah yes. The magna clamps." Said Yvonne. "Found in a spaceship buried at the base of Mount Snowden. You attach them to an object and it instantly cancels the mass. I can use them to lift 20 tons with a single hand. And that's an imperial ton by the way, Torchwood refuses to go metric."

A technician who was in the middle of more calculation than was necessary muttered some unpleasant remarks about that particular policy.

Jackie looked one of the clamps over. "I could do with that when I do the shopping."

Yvonne took it off her. "These devices are for Torchwood's benefit. Not the general public's."

* * *

The Doctor had spent a good twenty minutes or so looking round their various experiments. Little that he saw filled him with confidence. Torchwood were irresponsible at best, outright malicious at worst. He'd seen a technician using a teleport pod to tap her friend on the shoulder from the other end of the room. He'd seen a firing range, where they'd set up dummies in full battle dress of several countries to test fire power. He'd had to explain to some of them that it was not a good idea to use a badly damaged matter replicator to make more chips.

He bit his lip though, and kept to the matter at hand. "So, what about these ghosts then?"

"Ah yes." Said Yvonne. "They're what you might call a side effect."

"A side effect of what?"

"All in good time. There's an itinerary to get through."

"Oy, where you taking that?" Jackie interrupted.

The Doctor looked to see where she was pointing and saw the TARDIS on the back of a trolley, being towed away.

"If it's alien, It's ours." Said Yvonne.

"You'll never get inside it." He grinned.

"Etcetera." She grinned back.

The Doctor took a look at the TARDIS scanner, where he knew Rose would be watching and gave a nod.

Rose saw the nod and got an idea what he wanted. She went over to his jacket, which was hanging across a pillar and rummaged in the pockets, pulling out some weirdly shaped coins, a red ipod shuffle, playing cards and an early draft of The Hobbit before she found what she was looking for the psychic paper. Now she could go where she wanted. She just needed to think where to go with it.

 **Author's Notes: It's been a while since I posted. Life got in the way a bit. But I've got some time now.**


	3. Hijacked

**Chapter 3: Hijacked**

Matt sat at his desk, making some minor adjustments to the monitoring programs, only for a message from Adeola to appear on his screen. _Want to see something cool_.

He turned to where she was gazing at him and mouthed "W _hat?"_

She typed again. The message came up that said _Come and see_.

She stood up to go. Matt briefly thought about getting someone else's attention, but some desperate part of his mind that told him Adeola fancied him convinced him that she only wanted him alone. He thus blindly went after her.

* * *

As Yvonne led the Doctor and his companion down a concrete corridor in the underground levels, he took the opportunity to tell the Doctor a bit more about them. "All those times I've been on Earth, I've never heard of you."

"Of course not." She said. "You're listed in the official Torchwood charter of 1879 as an enemy of the crown."

"1879..." The Doctor thought for a moment. "That house in Scotland was called Torchwood."

"Of course. 1879 was the year you and Victoria had a run in with a werewolf." Yvonne nodded.

"I think he makes half this stuff up." Said Jackie.

Yvonne continued "Her Majesty created the Torchwood institute with the express intention of keeping Britain great. And fighting the alien horde."

"But if aliens are the enemy, does that make me your prisoner?" Said the Doctor.

"Oh yes." Yvonne smiled. "But we'll make you perfectly comfortable. And there is so much you can teach us. Starting with this." She swiped her key card on a reader and a steel door slid aside to reveal the sphere chamber. "What do you make of that?"

Seeing the Doctor coming in, Rajesh hurried over to him "Rajesh Singh. It's an honour sir." He offered his hand, but the Doctor was too preoccupied with starring up at the sphere. Understandable.

With the Doctor busy starring, Jackie took over the talking. "What's that thing?"

"Don't know." Said Yvonne. "We were hoping you could shed some light."

"What's wrong with it?"

"What makes you think there's something wrong with it?" Said Sebastian.

Jackie hadn't expected to be put on the spot like that. "Dunno. It just seems... wrong."

"The sphere has that effect on everyone." Said Yvonne.

The Doctor ran up to the sphere to have a look through some 3D glasses. Since he didn't seem keen to talk straight away, Rajesh continued. "We've analysed the sphere with every device imaginable. They're all negative. The sphere has no mass, no heat, no radiation. It doesn't age. All our tests show that the sphere doesn't exist."

"But I can see it." Said Jackie.

"I know." He sighed. "That's what's so disturbing. This thing is an impossibility. It twists the mind just by being there."

"Any thoughts, Doctor?" Said Yvonne.

"This is a void ship." He said.

"And what's that?" Sais Yvonne.

"Well, it's impossible for starters. It's a vessel designed to exist outside time and space. Travelling through the void."

Yvonne looked at Rajesh, but he was as clueless as she was. "What's the void?" He said.

"Space between realities. The space between dimensions. There's all sorts of realities around us, different dimensions, billions of parallel universes all stacked up against each other. The Void is the space in between, containing absolutely nothing. Imagine that. Nothing. No light, no dark, no up, no down, no life, no time. Without end. My people called it the Void. The Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it Hell."

"But someone must have built that ship." Said Rajesh. "Why would they?"

The Doctor thought for a moment. "To explore, to escape? Sit inside that thing and an eternity could pass you by. The Big Bang. End of one universe, start of the next. You wouldn't even touch the sides. You'd exist outside the whole of time and space."

"So there is something inside then." Rajesh grinned. "How do we get them out?"

"We don't!" The Doctor snapped. "We send that thing back to hell! How did it get here in the first place?"

"Well that's how all this started. It came through and the ghosts followed in its wake." Said Yvonne.

"Show me." The Doctor spun on his heel and marched out the door, leading the way down the corridor.

"This way, Doctor." Yvonne called.

He spun round again and walked the other way down the corridor.

* * *

As Adeola led him deeper into the walled off office, Matt's hope that she'd brought him here to confess her feelings was waning fast. "Seriously, what is it?" He said.

"Just go to your left." She replied.

He peeled apart a dust cover and looked down a passageway with a sickly red glow. That filled him with dread for one simple reason. "Yvonne's going to be back any minute."

"Just go to your left." She said again.

"What, in here?"

She nodded.

Curiosity getting the better of him one last time, he stepped through.

At around this time, Gareth knocked over a tea tray to cover the sound of the blood curdling screams coming from the walled off office.

* * *

Rose waited for ten minutes after the TARDIS stopped moving before stepping out and looking around cautiously. She found herself in a corner of the warehouse, obscured from the main hall by a spaceship wreck and an Osyran sarcophagus. Peering round the side, she saw soldiers wandering everywhere and hurriedly dropped back.

Looking around, she saw a lab coat hanging over the edge of a table. Quietly she edged up and grabbed it, before ducking back again. She pulled it on and straightened her hair out.

She went for a look around. As she'd hoped, no one was really looking for an intruder, so her paper thin disguise would conceal her nicely, as long as she didn't look like she was trying to avoid attention.

The next step was to find something to investigate. Spotting a man walking between some crates at a hurried pace, she decided he looked like the sort who wanted to avoid attention, so she followed him as he hurried through a door and down a corridor.

* * *

Up in the lever room, Matt and Adi were returning to their desks, but the Doctor paid them no attention. He was too busy looking over at the wall at the end.

"It came through here." Yvonne explained. "Not active now, but when we fire particle engines at that exact spot, the breach opens up."

"How did you find it?" Said the Doctor.

"RADAR black spot. We've been getting signs for years. So we built this place, Torchwood Tower, to get a closer look."

The Doctor pulled on his 3D glasses again. "You built a skyscraper just to get at an energy breach! How much money have you got?"

"Enough."

Jackie, meanwhile was looking out the window. 50 floors below, she could see the familiar landscape of the London docklands. "Hold on. This is Canary Wharf!"

"That is the official name for it, yes. To those in the know, it's Torchwood." Said Yvonne.

The Doctor, at this point had got a grasp of what was going on and decided there was no more time for diplomacy. "So, you lot, you find this rift, this tear in the fabric of reality. You build your way up here for a closer look, but instead of thinking "Shall we back off? Shall we play it safe?." You think "nah! Let's make it bigger!""

Yvonne sighed. "It's a massive source of energy. If we can harness that power, we need never depend on the Middle East again. Britain will become truly independent. Look, you can see for yourself. Next ghost shrift's in two minutes."

"Cancel it."

"I'm sorry. You're not in charge here."

"I'm warning you, cancel it."

"Oh, exactly as the legends would have it. The Doctor, lording it over us. Assuming alien authority over the Rights of Man." She laughed.

"Let me show you, sphere comes through..." He took his sonic and cut a small hole in one of the glass partitions around her office. Cracks rapidly spread out like spider webs. "But when it made the hole, it cracked the world around it. The entire surface of this dimension splintered. And that's how the ghosts get through. That's how they get everywhere. They're bleeding through the fault lines. Walking from their world, across the Void, and into yours, with the human race hoping and wishing and helping them along. But too many ghosts, and..." He tapped the glass. The whole pane shattered.

Yvonne frowned at the display. "We'll be more careful then. Positions! Ghost shift in one minute."

The Doctor was rapidly losing patience. "Miss Hartman. I am warning you, please don't do it."

"We've done this a thousand times!"

"Then stop at a thousand!"

"We're in control of the ghosts! The levers can open the breach, but they can just as easily close it!" See braced herself for the Doctor's next arrogant response.

Instead, the Doctor smiled. "OK."

"What?"

"I said OK. As you were."

"Doctor, you can't stop us."

"Oh no, absolutely not." He went and grabbed an office chair and sat in the middle of the room. "Just carry on, don't mind me. Pull up a chair, Rose. Come and watch the fireworks."

Jackie went to stand next to him, in a display of solidarity. Despite everything, she was actually beginning to enjoy this companion stuff.

"Ghost shift in ten seconds." Said Adeola. "9... 8..."

Yvonne stared the Doctor down. What he was doing was blatant reverse psychology. She wasn't going to let him get to her that way.

"7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1."

"Stop the shift!" Yvonne announced. "You heard me, shut it down."

"Thank you." The Doctor said.

"I suppose it does make sense to get as much intelligence as possible. But the program will recommence, just as soon as you've explained everything. In the meantime, someone clean up this glass! They did warn me, Doctor, you do like to make a mess."

They went into her office to talk. Several ghost forecasters were called to explain to their bosses why they'd failed to predict all these fluctuations, some ghost whisperers grew hopeful that they may have seen the last of these ghosts, meaning they could have their careers back. And three Torchwood employees silently communicated with each other, and with their masters. They agreed that they would need to push the timetable forward. The only way they could succeed was to go all in. They began to key in a new program, rapidly jump starting the whole system and bringing the power back online. They would either be discovered, or they would finish what they'd started.

* * *

Rose kept a safe distance behind the man she'd decided to follow. She watched as he torched a card to a reader on the wall and went through a metal door. She followed, pulling out the psychic paper and kissing it for luck. She touched it to the reader and, as she'd hoped, the door came open.

Rose stepped into the sphere chamber and promptly forgot what she was doing as she starred up at the sphere in awe.

"Try not to look at it, it does that to everyone." Rajesh said, once he'd noticed she was there. "Can I help you?"

"Hmm?" Rose said, as she shook herself off a bit, then thought of a good excuse. "They sent me from... personnel, just checking lines of comunication. They said someone had been taken... some Doctor. I was wondering if you'd heard anything."

Rajesh raised an eyebrow. "Let me see your identification."

"Er... yeah." Rose handed him the psychic paper.

Rajesh took the paper and promptly smirked. "Here's the thing. This paper's completely blank. Basic psychic training is compulsory for all staff." He got on his radio. "I need a lock down on the sphere chamber. Oh and Sebastian, check the locks would you? I don't want any more security leaks."

"Doing it now." Said Sebastian, before giving a stunned Rose a wink. It was Mickey!

* * *

Up in Yvonne's office, she was taking notes of what the Doctor had told her. They were a lot more civil with each now that they'd reached some kind of truce.

"So these ghosts, whatever they are, built the sphere then?" She said.

"Must have." The Doctor shrugged. "Aimed it at this dimension like a cannonball."

At this point, Rajesh apeared on the video chat. "Yvonne. I think you should see this. We have an intruder. I don't know who she is but she arrived the same time as the Doctor."

Yvonne Showed the Doctor a live video of Rose sat by Rajesh. "Do you recognise her?"

"Never seen her before in my life."

"Good. Then we can have her shot."

"Oh well, it was worth a try. That's Rose Tyler."

"Hello. Sorry." Said Rose.

"And who's she then?" Yvonne nodded at Jackie.

"That's her mother."

"You traveled through time and space with her mother?" Yvonne grinned.

"I was kidnapped!" Jackie insisted.

"Please." Said the Doctor. "When Torchwood writes my autobiography. Don't say that I travelled through time and space with her mother."

"Charming." Muttered Jackie.

But Yvonne wasn't listening. She'd been distracted by a series of clunks coming from the lever room. She stepped in and heard the unmistakable sound of machinery powering up. What's more, the activation levers were shifting over of their own accord. "Excuse me, what are you doing? I ordered you to stop ghost shift. Who's doing that? Someone stop the levers."

Two scientists hurried and grabbed the levers, but found they couldn't push them back. They could barely keep them in place. And the force was building.

"Right, step away from the monitors, everyone. Gareth, Addy, stop what you're doing, right now. Matt, step away from your desk. That's an order! Stop the levers! Andrew!"

Everyone stepped away, except for three operatives, the Doctor approached the nearest. "What's she doing?"

"Addy, step away from the desk. Listen to me. Step away from the desk."

"She can't hear you. We're going into ghost shift."


	4. From Within The Sphere

**Chapter 4: From Within The Sphere**

Rajesh got on the radio. "What's going on? I thought we'd cancelled ghost shift."

As he spoke a massive thump erupted from the sphere. "No, it can't be." But then it came again. "The sphere. It's active."

* * *

But no one paid attention. They were all focused on the levers and the possessed operators who were making them rise.

The Doctor took a look at the earpieces. "These are being used to control them. I've seen it before." He waved his hand under Adeola's nose and sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He said, before sonicing the earpieces. The three operatives screamed and collapsed.

"What did you just do?" Said Yvonne.

"Cancelled the signal. They're dead."

Jackie felt Adeola's pulse. "You killed them!"

"They were dead long before I got here." Said the Doctor.

"But you killed them!"

Yvonne, meanwhile, was having a closer look at an earpiece. "But they're standard Torchwood equipment how..." She pulled it from Adeola's ear for a closer look. The Doctor realised what she was doing and tried to stop her but too late. The earpiece brought with it a long string of bio-mechanical cables, with pieces of Adeola's brain hanging off it. Yvonne promptly dropped it in horror.

The Doctor had a look at the system. "Ghosts at 90%. Power's still building."

"Can you stop it?" Said Yvonne.

"They're remote controlling the system."

"They? Who's they."

He didn't answer, he just soniced around the room. "It might be a remote transmitter. If we can just find it... That way! Jackie, you stay here."

"The rest of you, stop those levers." Said Yvonne.

A small crowd of people hurried forward and tried to pull the levers down and attach weights to them. But they continued to rise. It was like they were trying to restrain a herd of charging elephants.

* * *

Down in the sphere chamber, the sphere itself was beginning to shake violently.

"Yvonne, can you hear me?" He shouted down the communicator. "The readings are going wild. It has mass, it has heat, it exists!" To his growing alarm, a low thunk echoed from the doors. "That's the quarantine locks. We're sealed in!"

As he went to check the doors, Mickey calmly stepped up to Rose. "Don't worry babe. We beat them before, we can beat them again. That's why we're here. The fight goes on."

"The fight against what?" She said.

"What do you think?" He grinned.

* * *

The Doctor used his sonic to guide the way through the corridors. They were getting close.

Behind him, Yvonne grabbed two passing soldiers. "You two, come with me."

"Yes maam." They said.

The Doctor halted be the plastic covered wall. "What's down here?"

"I don't know. Just renovations... new offices..."

"Something's hiding down there. You should go back."

"Fat chance." She pushed past him and the Doctor followed. The soldiers following behind. The Doctor thought he might have judged her too quickly. She may be ruthless, but she was also brave.

As they picked their way through the maze of plastic sheets, the Doctor could feel gears turning in his head. "Ear pieces, ear pods, this world colliding with another..." He drew up short as he saw a row of dark silhouettes behind the plastic sheets around them. "And I think I know which one."

"What are they?" Said Yvonne.

"They came through first. The advance guard. Cybermen."

The Cybermen reached forward and ripped apart the plastic sheets with their hands. They marched out and formed two lines in front of them.

Without waiting for orders, the guards opened fire, but everything they fired just bounced off the Cybermen's steel plating. In response, a gun attachment popped out of their arms and took both guards out in the space of a second.

The Doctor and Yvonne turned and fled the way they'd come, only to find another Cyberman had marched out to block the passageway ahead.

* * *

The crashes within the sphere were growing louder and louder. It no longer looked like a black circle, light was shimmering off it in a spherical way and seams were appearing on the surface that hadn't been there before.

Rose was at a loss of what to do at this point, or even what to say to the man she'd never thought she'd see again. She decided to let him do the talking. Mickey explained to Rose. "We had them beaten, but then they escaped. Found a way through to this world. And so did we."

"The Doctor said that was impossible." Said Rose.

"No the first time he's been wrong." He grinned.

Another crash sounded, much more violent than the last. "What's inside that sphere?" Said Rose.

"Dunno." Mickey shrugged. "Cyber leader, Cyber king, Cyber emperor? Whatever he is, he's dead meat." He reached into a container and pulled out one of the bulkiest rifles Rose had ever seen. It didn't take a lot to of deduction to determine that it was some weapon, specially designed to tackle Cybermen.

* * *

The Doctor and Yvonne were rapidly frogmarched back to the lever room, each was trying to think of a new plan, but each knew that any resistance would get then killed and they'd never get an opportunity to try anything.

As they stepped back into the lever room chamber, the Torchwood employees caught sight of the Cybermen and several frightened cries rang out.

"Don't fight them!" The Doctor shouted. "Just do what they want!"

Several agents reached for their guns anyway, but the Cybermen quickly lazered them down.

A Cyberman with black handlebars stepped forward. This, clearly, was the Cyberleader. "step away from the levers" it said. The levers by now had three people each trying to hold them down. All of them scrambled away the moment it said so. "the ghost power will be increased to one hundred percent" It placed a hand to its chest. Straight away, the levers rose to the very top of their own accord.

* * *

Right across the world, people saw the ghosts shimmer into life. A few pondered why they were a bit late, but no one was particularly concerned. But over the next 15 minutes, they began to appear in greater numbers than ever before. The world responded the same way they would if the rain had suddenly got a bit heavier. The Police spokesman made his usual "No cause for alarm" speech a bit later than usual. The evangelist preacher declared that it was the sign of a new dawn. The representative of the union of dead employment demanded that the makers of _EastEnders_ hire more ghosts as extras to cope with the rising number. Few recognised the immense danger they were all in.

* * *

Rajesh was going spare as he tried to call for help. He turned on the security feed to see if anyone was nearby and was horrified to see figures he recognised as Cybermen standing guard over everyone in the top floor. "Can anyone hear me?" He said anyway. "I need..." He was cut off by a thunderous silence in the chamber. The sphere had stopped shaking.

As Rajesh pulled on his glasses and came over to join them, Mickey pulled off his lab coat and earpiece. "Here we go."

Slowly, the seams in the sphere began to widen. Sections folded outwards as the machine opened up.

* * *

At the far end of the lever room, a platoon of ghosts were stepping into formation

The Doctor, meanwhile, was hastily explaining what the Cybermen were to Jackie.

"But these Zybermen," she said, "what do they have to do with the ghosts?"

"Don't you listen?" He hissed. "They're Cybermen, all the ghosts are Cybermen. Millions of them. And it's happening right across the world."

"So they're invading the whole plannet." Said Yvonne.

"It's not an invasion, it's too late for that. It's a victory."

* * *

The people of the world watched with interest as the ghosts began to morph, taking on definite lines and opaque, solid form. Within seconds, interest turned to utter panic as it became clear that they were forming into robots.

People screamed and fled, but there were more of these machines everywhere they went. The Police chief hurriedly assured the people to remain calm and stay in their homes, shortly before being hit by a laser. That only deepened the panic. Even those who stayed in their homes weren't safe. Many had got used to the ghosts visiting their living rooms. Now they had a Cyberman in their midst and nowhere to run except into a street crawling with more of them.

* * *

Light was now beginning to spill from the sphere. Mickey calmly shouldered hi weapon. "I know what's in there. And I've got just the thing. I'm gonna blast it to hell."

Rajesh was blinking in bewilderment. "Samuel, what's going on?"

"The name's Mickey. Defending the Earth."

* * *

As a hush descended across the lever room, the Doctor heard an alert siren from a nearby monitor. _Sphere active._ He frowned and spoke to the nearest Cyberman. "What I don't understand is, Cybermen don't have the technology to create the shpere. How did you build it?"

"we did not" it said.

The Doctor was silent for a few moments. "What?"

"the sphere broke down the wall between dimensions we merely followed in its wake its origin is unknown"

The Doctor went pale. "Then what's inside it?"

"Rose is down there!" Said Jackie.

* * *

Mickey watched as four figures emerged from the sphere. He had no idea what they were, but certainly not Cybermen.

Rose, however knew exactly what they were. She'd have thought it impossible if she hadn't got used to seeing six impossible things before breakfast.

"LOCATION: EARTH LIFE FORMS DETECTED! EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE!"


	5. The War

**Doomsday**

 **Chapter 5: The War**

"Daleks!" Rose shouted. As she'd hoped. the Daleks stopped dead. "Just think, how does an ordinary human know about the Daleks. And the time war. Isn't that worth keeping me alive?"

Mickey, meanwhile was looking between them and his gun. From what Rose had told him, Daleks were virtually indestructible. Most likely, this gun would just annoy them. "Yeah, me too, Daleks." He said instead. "Time war. Yeah."

"Me too." Said Rajesh.

The black Dalek, which appeared to be leading the group, looked over them. "YOU WILL BE NECCESARY." It spun round to look at one of the others. "WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE GENESIS ARK?"

"STATUS, HYBERNATION."

"COMENCE AWAKENING. THE GENESIS ARK MUST BE PROTECTED ABOVE ALL ELSE."

Two of the gold Daleks turned to a device, which had emerged from the pod with them. A cylinder of about Rose's height, with a domed roof. Four attachments round the sides had little lumps, which the Daleks seemed to be using as controls with their arms.

Mickey had never actually met the Daleks up until this point. They looked a lot smaller than they imagined, but there was something inordinately creepy about them, as if they were emitting evil. "I thought you said they were all dead?" He asked her. "How comes, they're here?"

"Never mind that. What's the Genesis ark?" She said.

They watched as the Daleks manipulated the attachments for a minute before simultaneously leaving and moving one space clockwise. But nothing appeared to be happening.

* * *

Up in the lever room, Jackie was distraught. "What's down there? She was in that room with the sphere. What's happened to Rose?"

"I don't know." The Doctor hissed. Seeing Jackie welling up, he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I'll find her. I brought you here, I'll get you both out, you and your daughter. Jackie, look at me. Look at me. I promise you. I give you my word."

Suddenly, he had a thought and reached into his pocket. For a few moments, Jackie thought he was about to pull out something to help them. Instead, he pulled out some 3D glasses and peered at the Cyberleader as it met with Yvonne in her office.

In her office, Yvonne was sat behind her desk, facing the Cyberleader with no more concern then she'd show an unwelcome client.

"you will speak to your central world authority and order global surrender" It said.

Yvonne snorted. "Oh do some research! We haven't got a central world authority."

"you have now I will speak on all frequencies" It turned to the nearest Cyberman, who faced it back. The image from its cameras was relayed to every screen in the world, while its speech was translated into the appropriate language for every region. The English version went "cybermen now occupy every land mass on this planet, but you need not fear cybermen will remove fear cybermen will remove sex and class and colour and creed you will become identical you will become like us"

* * *

The Cybermen had spent a long time planning this occupation. They'd sent scouts ahead to covertly research this universe and used the information to calculate the best possible pastern that would leave them commanding strategic points everywhere, leaving the human race divided and confused. Nor could they look to the authorities for help since they had a presence in most of the world's government buildings and military command centres. Plus, as soon as they'd arrived, they'd set about sabotaging communication networks to make it even harder for the human race to organise.

Nonetheless, 5 million Cybermen simply weren't enough to keep 7 billion people pinned down. Nor could they rely on shock and awe, since they were facing a race that had gotten used to the possibility of other worldly invasions in the last few years. Their instinct was no longer to panic, but to fight back with anything they could get their hands on. Pockets of resistance sprang up everywhere and anyone who could get away from the Cybermen ran for the sounds of battle, whether for protection or to join the fight. They were isolated, often leaderless, and rapidly discovering that most of their weapons were useless. But they were prepared to fight to the death.

Stood by the window, watching the chaos below, the Cyberleader was struggling to rationalise this turn of events. "i ordered surrender"

"They're not taking orders!" The Doctor cried. "You're in their homes, you've got their children. Of course they're gonna fight!"

* * *

The black Dalek looked its captives over. "WHICH OF YOU IS LEAST IMPORTANT?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Said Rose.

"WHICH OF YOU IS LEAST IMPORTANT?" It repeated.

She put her hand on her hip. "No. We don't work like that. None of us."

"DESIGNATE THE LEAST IMPORTANT!" It roared.

Rajesh stepped forward. "This is my responsibility."

"No don't!" Rose hissed.

Rajsh ignored her and stood in the middle of the Daleks. "I represent Torchwood. Anything you need, you can come through me. Leave these two alone."

Rose stood back. He'd drawn attention to himself, now there was nothing she could do to help.

"YOU WILL KNEEL." Said the black Dalek.

"What for?"

"KNEEL!" It shouted again.

Deciding that cooperation was the best policy for now, he got down on his knees.

The three gold Daleks all moved closer to his position. "WE REQUIRE KNOWLEGE OF RECENT EARTH HISTORY."

"Alright." He said. "I can give you a certain amount of intelligence. But nothing that will compromise homeworld security."

"SPEECH IS NOT NECCESARY. WE WILL EXTRACT BRAINWAVES!"

It took Rajesh a few seconds to process those words. Then he saw three sucker arms extending towards his head. Only now did he realise that the Daleks hadn't been asking for the least important from the humans' perspective humans but the least important to them. "No, I'll tell you everything you need to know! No! No! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" As the Daleks enveloped his head, he got an increasing feeling as though they were each sucking his brain out through straws.

* * *

Up in the control room, the Cyberleader was scanning the tower's tech scanners for any active device, least someone was hiding somewhere, building something they could use against them. Three of them had already been caught, now a fourth suddenly sprang up. "scans detect unknown technology active in the sphere chamber units 6 and 7 will investigate"

* * *

Rajesh's body dropped to the floor, his head twisted and dry, but with a silent scream permanently etched on it.

"You didn't have to kill him!" Cried Rose.

The black Dalek looked at her. "NEITHER DID WE NEED HIM ALIVE." It spun round to look at one of the others. "HIS MIND SPOKE OF A SECOND SPECIES INVADING EARTH, UNDER THE SUPERSTITION OF GHOSTS. DALEK THAY WILL INVESTIGATE OUTSIDE."

"I OBEY." Said the Dalek, which apparently was called Thay. This intrigued Rose. Daleks shouldn't have names should they?

"ESTABLISH VISUAL CONTACT." Said the black Dalek. A huge screen appeared in the space where the sphere had been, showing the view from Thay's eyestalk.

* * *

The Cybermen too had brought up a large viewscreen. The Doctor edged round to have a look, some part of his mind hoping that the sphere may contain something friendly. His hopes were immediately dashed the moment the Dalek slid into view.

"IDENTIFY YOURSELVES!" It said.

"you will identify first"

"STATE YOUR IDENTITY.

"you will identify first"

"IDENTIFY!"

* * *

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Mickey snorted slightly at the sight of two massively powerful cyborgs squabbling like children. "It like Stephen Hawking meets the speaking clock."

Their stalemate of demands continued. "that answer is not logical you will modify"

"DALEKS DO NOT TAKE ORDERS!"

"you have identified as daleks"

The Dalek scanned it more thoroughly, "OUTLINE RESEMBLES INFERIOR FORM OF CYBERMEN."

* * *

"Rose said about the Daleks, she was terrified." Jackie whispered, her voice shaking. "She's down there with them. Did they kill her? Is she dead?"

"Phone." He hissed.

"What?"  
"Phone."

She handed it over and he hurriedly phoned Rose. She answered pretty quickly. She didn't say anything but her presence brought a shiver of joy to them.

"She's alive! Why haven't they killed her?"

"Well don't complain?" Said Jackie.

Rose, it seemed had put her phone on speaker. They heard two more Daleks speaking in the sphere chamber. "LONG RANGE SCANS CONFIRM CRUDE CYBERNETIC CONSTRUCTIONS ON A WORKDWIDE SCALE."

"THE GENESIS ARK MUST BE PROTECTED."

"The genesis ark?" He muttered, pulling on his 3D glasses to have a look at the Dalek on the screen.

On screen, the Dalek and Cybermen were still talking, as each scanned the other thoroughly. "our species are similar though your design is inelegant" Said the later.

"DALEKS HAVE NO CONCEPT OF ELEGENCE!"

"this is obvious" said the Cyberman in a tone that could almost have been mocking, if it weren't from a Cybermen. "however our technologies are compatible cybermen plus daleks consider together we could upgrade the universe"

"YOU PROPOSE AN ALIANCE?"

"that is correct."

The Dalek paused as though it was considering, and anyone listening in, with a breath promptly held it. "REQUEST DENIED." The Daleks didn't need anything from the Cybermen at this point. The idea of letting them remain alive was too horrible for their hate filled minds to contemplate.

The Cybermen readied their arms. "hostile elements will be deleted"

They fired on the Dalek, but their shots were absorbed by the Dalek's armour.

"EXTERMINARE!" It fired two shots, hitting both Cybermen. They were dead before they hit the ground.

While this was going on, the other Cybermen had been working on a video link to the sphere chamber itself. Now that they'd lost their negotiators, the Cyberleader ordered it switched on.

"daleks be warned" It said. "you have declared war on the cybermen"

* * *

The black Dalek swivelled it's eyestalk up to face this new face on the view screen. "THIS IS NOT WAR! THIS IS PEST CONTROLL!"

"we are five million cybermen how many are you"

The Dalek was silent for a few moments. "FOUR."

"you would destroy the cybermen with four daleks"

"WE WOULD DESTROY THE CYBERMEN WITH ONE DALEK! YOU ARE SUPERIOR IN ONLY ONE RESPECT!"

"what is that"

"YOU ARE BETTER AT DYING! RAISE COMUNICATIONS BARIER."

"WAIT." Said one of the gold Daleks. "REWING IMAGE BY NINE RELLS."

They wound back the image and watched as a humanoid figure wandered across the background. "FIGURE REGISTERS AS ENEMY."

The Black Dalek looked at Rose. "THE FEMALE'S HEARTBEAT HAS INCREASED."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Mickey grinned.

"YOU WILL IDENTIFY!"

"Alright, you really wanna know? That's the Doctor."

The Dalek's instantly edged a foot backwards.

Rose grinned tauntingly. "Five million Cybermen? Easy. One Doctor? Now you're scared."

* * *

The Cybermen were rapidly recalculating their plans based on the information gained in their encounter with the Dalek. They certainly had the advantage in brute strength. However, they'd also displayed several crude emotions in their encounter. Hatred, mockery, recklessness, arrogance, all of which could be used against them. Cybermen adapted to deal with circumstances, Daleks just blew circumstances up. They could devise a way of destroying them, given time. But to do so would require more units to keep the Daleks at bay.

The Cyberleader gave some orders. "quarantine the sphere chamber begin emergency upgrading start with these two"

Two Cybermen grabbed Jackie and Yvonne and dragged them away. Both struggled madly but the Cyber grip seemed unshakable.

"You can't do this!" Yvonne screamed. "We surrendered!"

The Doctor rushed forward to help, but the Cyberleader grabbed him "guard this one his increased adrenaline suggests he may have vital dalek information"

"Stop them!" Jackie screamed. "I don't want to go! Doctor you promised! You gave me your word!"

"I demand that you let that woman go!" The Doctor shouted at the Cyberleder. "I won't help if you hurt her!" When this had no effect he shouted at Jackie "Don't struggle! I'll think of something!"


	6. The Enemy Of My Enemy

**Chapter 6: The Enemy Of My Enemy**

"CYBER THREAT IRRELAVANT." Said Dalek Thay. "CONCENTRATE ON THE GENESIS ARK."

The four Daleks resumed their work, whatever it was they were trying to do with the device.

"Why are we being kept alive." Mickey muttered.

Rose had been pondering that herself. They no longer seemed interested in interrogating them. "They might need us for something else."

* * *

Jackie and Yvonne were dragged into the curtained off area, towards a short queue of personnel, each restrained by a Cybermen, led towards an ever louder sound of machinery and screams. Ahead of them, they saw the man at the front struggling furiously as he was dragged towards a chamber. He whacked several times on the Cyberman's armour, probably braking his wrist in the process, but failed to make any impression before they flung him in.

Jackie didn't see what happened, but she saw a shower of sparks and heard him scream.

"What goes on in there?" She said.

Yvonne had lost all the composure she'd had before, now she was pale and stammering. She knew all to well what was about to happen. "I think... I think they remove the brain... sorry, um... I think they remove the brain and they put it in a suit of armour. That's what these things are. They're us."

"next" Said one of the Cybermen. Yvonne felt herself being dragged forward, while Jackie screamed at her. "This is all your fault! You and your bloody Torchwood! You've killed us all!"

"I did my duty!" She shouted back. Suddenly filled with resolve, she wrenched her arm free from the Cyberman. She couldn't escape but she decided to face death with dignity. She took a breath and marched into the cubicle. "I did my duty. I did my duty. Oh God, I did my duty."

* * *

The Doctor watched from the window as the people below fought furiously in the streets, the buildings and the sewers. He watched as some marines took up a position behind some abandoned cars, shooting at a handful of advancing Cybermen. They blasted at them, but their bullets did no damage that the Doctor could see. One was aiming a bazooka, but the Cybermen shot them. Another soldier grabbed it themselves and blasted one of the Cybermen apart.

While they were holding their own, it couldn't last. With two unstoppable races of cyborgs battling over the Earth, the human race was in a position comparable to a man sat in a rowing boat between the Monitor and the Merimac. Doomed to be torn apart in the crosfire.

"you will impart information about the daleks" Said the Cyberleader.

The Doctor thought for a moment. "You want my advice? Come over here. My advice is... I've got a machine downstairs that can take us away from here. Just you and me. Go to the other end of the universe." He said only half jokingly. "Because there's nothing else I can do. For the first time in my life. In a few hours. This planet will be a ball of flame."

The Cyberleader calculated things for a moment. "you are proof"

"Of what?"

"that emotions destroy you."

The Doctor sensed some disturbances that would have gone unnoticed by any being that didn't dwell in time. "Mind you, speaking of emotions, hope's a good one. I like hope. Speaking of which, here it comes..."

A group of combat suited figures materialised in the lever room, stood in a ring facing outwards. The moment they were solid, each fired a strange gun at the Cybermen in front of them. The laser like blast, instantly took the Cybermen's heads off. The Cyberleader hurried to meet them, but the group's leader spun to face it and took out the Cyberleader before it had a chance to do anything.

Seeing the Doctor stood there, the group leader pulled his mask off, revealing a man he'd last seen fighting the Cybermen on a parallel world.

"Jake?" Said the Doctor, looking with his 3D glasses just to make sure.

Jake grinned. "The Cybermen came from one world to another. And so did we.

* * *

Jackie was struggling hard as the Cyberman dragged her towards the chamber, all to no avail. But as they neared the entrance, the Cyberman abruptly let go. And turned to another.

"cyberleader 1 has been killed"

"explain download shared files"

"i will take over as cyberleader"

Jackie had no idea what was going on, but she did see that their automated minds had temporarily skipped her and she had to get away before they realised. Spotting a blind spot among the remaining Cybermen, she ran for it. She burst through several rows of sheeting before she found a door and hurried through it.

On the far side, there were stairs, which she leapt down. She had no particular plan of where to go. Just a desperation to keep running.

* * *

Jake issued orders to his troops. "Guard the entrances to this room. Chrissie, monitor communications. Kill one Cyberleader and they just download into another. Move!"

As they ran to their posts, the Doctor went to talk to Jake. "You can't just hop from one parallel world to another. That's impossible."

"We can now. With these." Jake handed him a medallion on a chain, which really was a palm sized yellow button.

"But you shouldn't have this sort of technology."

"Our own version of Torchwood developed it." He grinned. "Want to see?" He reached for the button.

"No!" Shouted the Doctor. There was a bright flash and the Doctor found himself stood in the parallel version of the same room. But this one was a wreck. There were no lights and cables were scattered everywhere.

"Except in this world, we found out what the institute was doing and the people's republic took control." Said Jake.

But the Doctor wasn't interested. "I've got to get back. Rose is in danger. And her mother."

"That'd be Jackie." Said a new voice. The Doctor turned to see Pete Tyler's doppelganger walking in. "My wife in a parallel world. As for you, Doctor, at least I know who you are this time."

"Right, yes fine. But I've got to get back right now."

"No. You're not in charge here Doctor. And you're going to listen for once."

* * *

Mickey was thumbing his own yellow button. "I could transport out of here. But I'm not leaving you."

"You'd follow me anywhere." Said Rose. "Even after what I did to you all those years ago."

"Guess I'm just stupid." Mickey smiled.

"You're the bravest man I've ever met." She reassured him.

"What about the Doctor?"

"Bravest human then."

Mickey grinned. "I still can't think what the Daleks want with me. I'm nothing to them."

Rose had a thought. "You could be. Whatever's inside that ark, it's waking up. I've seen this before. The first time I saw a Dalek, it was broken. It was dying. But I touched it. The moment I did that, I brought it back to life. As the Doctor said, when you travel in time in the Tardis, you soak up all this background radiation. It's harmless. It's just there. But in the Time War, the Daleks evolved so they could use it as a power supply."

"I love it when you talk technical."

"Shut up." She grinned. "If the Daleks have got something inside that thing and it needs waking up..."

"They need you."

"Either of us. You've travelled in time too."

Mickey thought over what she said. It seemed to make sense, but one last thing didn't make sense. "Why would the Daleks build something they couldn't operate themselves?"

"THE DEVICE IS NOT OF DALEK ORIGIN." Said the Black Dalek, who'd evidently been listening in. "IT IS STOLEN."

"Who from?" Said Rose.

"THE TIMELORDS. THIS IS ALL THAT SURVIVES OF THEIR HOME WORLD."

"What's inside it?"

"THE FUTURE!"

* * *

On the parallel Earth, Pete was busy explaining what had happened since the Doctor's last visit. "You said there'd be more Cybermen, so we sealed them inside the factories."

"But people argued." Said Jake. "Said they were living. We should help them."

"And the debate went on." Pete continued. "But all this time, the Cybermen made plans. Infiltrated this version of Torchwood and then just vanished."

"When was this?" Said the Doctor.

"Three years ago."

"It took them three years to cross the void, but we can hop across in seconds. Must be the effort of moving so many at once."

"Yeah, Mickey said you'd rattle off that sort of stuff." Pete said.

"Oh, where is the Mickey boy now?"

"He went ahead. Any chance to go and find miss Rose Tyler."

"She's your daughter. Did Mickey explain that?"

"She's not my daughter. She's the child of a dead man." He strolled over to look out the window. Below them was a much cleaner and busier city than the world they'd just left. Though that may have been due to the war on the other Earth spoiling the view. "Look at it. World at peace. They're calling it the golden age."

"Who's the president now?"

"Harriet Jones."

The Doctor nodded. "Ooh, I'd keep an eye on her."

"But it's all a lie. Temperatures have risen by two degrees in the past six months. The ice caps are melting. They say all this will be flooded. It's not just global warming is it?"

"No. It's the breach. I keep trying to tell you, every time you jump, you rip a hole in the universe. Huge outburst of energy. This world is going to boil. Keep going and both worlds will fall into the void."

"But you can stop it though? The famous Doctor. You can seal the breach?"

"Leaving 5 million Cybermen stranded on my earth."

"That's not my problem." Pete said firmly. "I'm protecting this world. And this world only."

The Doctor grinned. "Pete Tyler. I knew you when you were dead. There is a chance, back on my world, that Jackie Tyler might still be alive."

Pete's eyebrows went up slightly, before he hurriedly suppressed them. "My wife died."

"Her husband died. Good match."

Pete didn't like where this was going. "There's more important things at stake. Doctor. Help us."

"What? Stop the Cybermen? Close the breach? Do you believe I can do that."

"Yes."

The Doctor grinned. Somehow, hope was welling up in him once more. "That's all I need. Off we go then!"

The Doctor had decided to leave the question of Jackie to one side for the time being. Pete had been persuaded to come here to help put and end to the Cybermen once and for all, rather than treating the alternate universe as expendable. At least that's what he told himself.

As they materialised back in the Doctor's universe, the first thing he did was run for the phone. He dialled a number. Seconds later, Jackie's voice responded, sounding out of breath. "Oh God help me!"

The Doctor looked at Pete, who'd gone pale at the sound of her voice, then spoke to her. "Jackie, you're alive, listen..."

"They tried to download me!" She interrupted.

"Shush! Just listen. Where are you?"

"Staircase."

"Which one? Is there any sort of sign? Something to identify it?"

"Fire extinguisher!"

The Doctor sighed. "Yeah, that helps."

"Oh wait! There's a number here. N3."

"North corner staircase 3. Ok, Jackie, keep low and keep moving."

"Don't leave me!"

"There's something I have to do. I'm sorry." He turned her off and turned to Pete. "Jacqueline Andrea Suzete Tyler."

Pete had regained his composure. "She's not my wife."

"I was at the wedding. You got her name wrong." But that could wait. "Now then Jakey boy, let's have a look at these guns. If I can open up a bonding chamber, it'll work on polycarbide."

"What's polycarbide?" Said Jake.

"Skin of a Dalek."

* * *

The Cybermen had calculated that an attempt to retake the lever room would be an unnecessary waste of resources. Instead, they were paroling the surrounding corridors to keep them penned up. One such patrol spotted a stick extending round a corner, with a sheet of paper stuck to it. It was soon followed by the Doctor.

"Sorry. Couldn't find a white flag. Had to make do with a piece of A4. Same difference."

The Cybermen raised their guns and approached him. "do you surrender"

"Yes, I surrender to you... a very good idea." He grinned.

* * *

"GENESIS ARK IS IN IT'S FINAL SATGE OF AWAKENING." Announced the black Dalek. "THE FEMALE'S HANDPRINT WILL ACTIVATE IT."

Rose folded her arms. "Well tough, 'cos I'm not doing it."

"OBEY OR THE MALE WILL DIE."

She sighed. "I can't let them."

"Rose don't!" Said Mickey.

"PLACE YOUR HAND UPON THE CASKET!" The Dalek shouted.

"Alright!" She shouted back. "You're gonna kill us anyway so why the hurry?" She reached for the casket then pulled her arm away. "If you lot escaped the time war, do ya wanna know what happened?"

"PLACE YOUR HAND UPON THE CASKET."

"What happened to the emperor."

The Dalek paused. "THE EMPOROR SURVIVED?"

"Until he met me. 'cos if these are gonna be my last words then you may as well listen I met the emperor. I took the time vortex and poured it into his head and I turned him into dust. D'you get that? God of all Daleks and I destroyed him." She grinned.

The Dalek shuddered with rage "YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"Oh now wait a minute." Said the Doctor's voice, as he stepped though a newly opened door, once more clad in his 3D glasses.

"ALERT ALERT. IT IS THE DOCTOR!" Said a Dalek, as it hurriedly operated some controls to lock the door again.

"SENSORS SHOW HE IS UNARMED."

"That's me. Always." He grinned.

"THEN YOU ARE POWERLESS."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. Hello Rose. And Mickety, Mick, Mick, Mickey. How you getting on." He didn't bat an eyelid at the sight of Mickey, just offered out a fist bump.  
"Alright boss." Mickey grinned.

"SOCIAL INTERATION WILL CEASE."

"HOW DID YOU SURVIVE THE TIME WAR?"

The Doctor took on a much more serious look. "By fighting. On the front line. I was there at the fall of Arcadia. Might even come to terms with that some day. But you lot? You ran away!"

"WE HAD TO SURVIVE!"

"The last four Daleks in existence. What's so special about you?"

"They've got names." Said Rose. "I mean, not that it's rude or anything but Daleks don't have names, do they? One of 'em said they were..."

"I AM DALEK THAY." Said Thay.

"DALEK SEC." Said the Black Dalek.

"DALEK JAST."

"DALEK CAAN."

The Doctor grinned. "The cult of Scaro. At last."

"Who're they?" Said Rose.

"A secret order. Above and beyond the emperor himself. Their job was to imagine. Think as the enemy thinks. They even dared to have names... All to find new ways of killing." As he spoke, he was pondering some aspects of his plans which might need rethinking. Particularly since the cult would be a lot tougher than he'd expected. But it was too late to back out now.

"But that thing, they said it was yours. I mean timelords'. What does it do?" Said Mickey.

The Doctor peered at it with a frown. "Dunno. Never seen it before."

"But it's timelord."

"Both sides had secrets." He said vaguely. He knew the high council had taken measures to keep him in the dark about all their worst plans. If one of these plans had made it through, it added a whole extra helping of bad to the situation. Not wanting his companions to delve too deeply, he quickly pressed on. "What is it, what've you done?"

"TIEMLORD SCIENCE WILL RESTORE DALEK SUPREMACY!"

"What sort of timelord science? What do you mean?"

"They said one touch from a time traveller would wake it up."

"Technology operated by the one thing a Dalek can't do. Touch." He peered down Sec's eyestalk. "Sealed inside your casing. Not feeling anything ever, from birth to death, locked inside a cold metal cage. Completely alone. That explains your voice. No wonder you scream."

"THE DOCTOR WILL OPEN THE ARK!"

He laughed. "The Doctor will not."

"YOU HAVE NO WAY OF RESISTING."

"Well... you've got me there." He shrugged. "Although, there's this." He reached into his pocket to pull out the sonic screwdriver.

"A SONIC PROBE?"

"That's screwdriver!"

"IT IS HARMLESS."

"Oh yes. That's what I love. Doesn't kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim. But I tell you what it is good at. It is very good at opening doors."

He pressed the button, detonating the explosives that his allies had placed on weak points in the doors, of which there were several since they were designed to contain anything which came out of the void ship, rather than stop anyone breaking in. The doors were all blasted free of their mountings.

Seconds later, Cybermen came swarming into the room, with Torchwood troops from both universes running alongside them. The mutual threat of the Daleks had allowed the Doctor to negotiate a truce between the two sides. Together, they'd been preparing their assault while the Doctor kept the Daleks occupied.

They fired a stream from their Cyberguns. The Doctor watched in hope, but was soon disappointed as the weapons failed to penetrate the armour. These were the Dalek elites after all. They made regular Dalek armour look like biscuit tins by comparison. Nonetheless the guns did have the effect of immobilising the Daleks temporarily, as they were forced to divert all energy to the shielding to counteract it.

The chamber quickly descended into chaos, as a swarm of marines launched a hail of bullets against the impaired Daleks, hoping something might get through and the Daleks spun around, franticly trying to adapt their armour to this new threat.

"Mickey!" Shouted Jake, and slid a gun across the floor to him.

Mickey grabbed it and fired several shots at the Genesis Ark, but soon found that the Daleks had projected a forcefield onto the skin of the device, or else the timelords had reinforced it well.

"UPGRADING ARMOUR... EXTERMINATE!" The Daleks fired, taking down two of the Cybermen. "CYBERMEN PRIMARY TARGER!"

"Everyone out!" Shouted the Doctor.

Rose was already on her way to the door, but tripped as a Cyberman fell in front of her. Fortunately, a pair of arms grabbed her before she could hit the ground. She looked and saw that it was her dad. But that stood to reason. They hurried out the door. Turning back, she saw Mickey, still caught up in the fight. "Mickey!" She shouted.

Hearing that snapped him back to reality and he made a run for the door. But he'd barely got two steps before a Cyberman fell against him. It was only a glancing blow bUt it was enough to cause him to stumble backwards. Throwing his arm out for support, he caught of a surface and pushed himself upright. Glancing back, he saw that it was the Genesis ark, which now had a glowing handprint stamped on it.

"GENESIS ARC ACTIVATED." Announced Sec.


	7. The Battle Of Canary Wharf

**Chapter 7: The Battle Of Canary Wharf**

The Cybermen's estimation of the threat posed by the Daleks had now multiplied several times. Though they'd agreed to suspend cyberconversions in exchange for Torchwood's assistance, the need for reinforcements was now too great. The agreement would now take up the designation of lie as they began to drag as many towards the conversion chambers as they could without the marines finding out.

Fortunately, by now, many of the Torchwood personel had managed to wriggle free of their captors and had spent the last few hours forming into groups and devising means of fighting back with anything they found lying around. Pockets of resistance sprang up all over the building as humans and Cybermen fought in the offices, the storerooms and the corridors.

In the midst of this, the Daleks swept through, exterminating both sides indiscriminately.

The Cybermen calculated that the humans were a distraction and the Daleks should be dealt with. They had no chance of stopping them in the corridors, instead, they arranged themselves in a careful pattern which would utilise the Daleks' rage and hatred to draw them towards the main hall.

* * *

The Doctor and his friends ran through one of the quieter corridors, the sounds of battle all around them. They paused at a junction, where he soniced Rose's phone and stood for a few moments triangulating a signal.

"I'm sorry about starting the ark." Mickey said, fully expecting to be called an idiot again.

"Mickey," the Doctor grinned, "if you hadn't, they would have opened it by force. To do that, they'd have blown up a star. You did us all a favour." He pointed. "This way, now run!"

* * *

Jackie was almost at the bottom by now. Of course, the streets were no safer but she could at least get away from this place.

Her hopes were dashed by the sounds of gunfire below her. She looked down to see a group of guards making a fighting retreat up the stairs, as the Cybermen advanced from below.

Lacking the strength to run back up, she hurried through the nearest door, which led into a blank corridor. In a split second decision, she turned right. And came face to face with two Cybermen.

"you will be taken for upgrading" They said.

"No but you can't!" She pleaded.

They advanced on her, but had barely stomped two feet before they were brought down by two shots from behind. They fell to reveal a man she hadn't seen for 18 years, holding a cybergun.

"Pete?" She said. "I said there were ghosts but why him?"

He took a breath. "I'm not a ghost Jacks/"

"But you died!"

"It's Pete from a parallel universe." The Doctor stepped forward to explain. "Every decision we make creates a a parallel world where..."

"And you can shut up an' all." Said Jackie.

The Doctor nodded and stood back.

"Is it really you?" Said Jackie.

"Just about."

"You look old."

"You don't." They both smiled.

"How can you be standing there?" She said.

"Just got lucky. With my life and all that." He said. They were both making great efforts to speak as though they were just chatting casually, not certain how the other, or even themselves, wanted to proceed. "He says you were left on your own. You didn't marry again or..."

"There never was anyone else. But look at me. 20 years and I never left that flat. Did nothing with myself."

"You brought her up. Rose Tyler. That's not bad."

She looked at Rose, who was stood behind him, really hoping... "Yeah."

"In my world... it worked. All those daft plans of mine. Made me rich."

"I don't care about that. How rich?"

"Very."

"I don't care about that. How very?"

Pete snorted.

"Thing is though, Jacks, you're not my wife. I mean, we're both..." He watched her nod in agreement. "There's just..." She nodded again. "Oh come here!"

The two of them ran up and threw their arms around on another. They didn't care if they weren't technically the one they'd married. All that mattered was that they each had their partner in their arms again, the one thing they'd always wanted.

* * *

The Cybermen, and their remaining marine allies, had succeeded in drawing the Daleks towards a particular set of double doors in the main hall. It was here that they had to be stopped. There were fifty of them, stood in an ark around the door to concentrate their fire. Thirty more stood in the catwalks above. The humans were taking positions interspersed with the Cybermen, behind crates and vehicles.

Still more Cybermen were rapidly preparing newer weapons. They'd hacked the Torchwood files on many of the weapons strewn around the room and used the research to arm the weapons and aim them at the door. They didn't know what effect any of it would have on Daleks but, something would get through.

The Daleks however did know what would hurt them. The information they'd extracted from the human scientist had revealed a total of two devices which stood any immediate chance of breeching their armour. The moment they burst through the doors, the first thing they did was blow both of them to pieces.

"EXTERMINATE!" They roared, now turning their guns on the Cybermen and humans.

"delete" the Cybermen responded, unleashing a hail of multicoloured fire at the Daleks, but they proceeded lazily forward, still gunning down enemies left and right.

The soldiers too, opened up a hail of machine gun fire, hoping the Cybermen might have weakened their shields. They sent flanking parties round the sides to get a few feet from the Daleks and hit them point blank. But they just spun their centre section to knock them out.

The humans retreated as the Daleks advanced, while the Cybermen stayed put. But it was soon clear to all concerned that this was futile. The Cyberleader calculated some more. Any weapon or any shield could only take so much damage. The Daleks were as susceptible to the second law of thermodynamics as any creature. But they needed to keep up the attack if they were ever going to beat them. "all units emergency converge on the torchwood tower"

* * *

All over London, the people who were cowering from the Cybermen, being led away, or fighting for their lives suddenly saw them stop, turn, and march away. None of them understood why. Some tried to follow, but most understood not to push their luck and hurried towards any safe place they could think of.

* * *

The Doctor peered carefully round the edge of another door to the main hall and watched as all the alien technology Torchwood had hoarded did nothing to help them. He'd seen this patern throughout the history of many cultures, when a less advanced race captures some more advanced weapons and thinks this puts them on a par with their enemies. But all it does is draws attention to themselves. They find out the hard way that their opponents have even bigger weapons, and much more knowledge of how to use them.

The air inside was thick with a firefight and running a few feet would be difficult. He looked at the TARDIS. Rose and her family would be safe there. Protected from what he planned to do. But he could barely see it through the hail of bullets, lasers and death rays flying everywhere. Not to mention the squad of Cybermen who'd taken up a position right in front of it. There was no way they were getting to it.

Instead, he went to plan B. What he needed was right where he'd left it on top of a crate, not that far away. Ignored by all sides since it was no use as a weapon. It still meant running between the two sides but it was less distance.

Deciding there was never going to be a good moment, he ran through the hail, narrowly avoiding the beams, and took cover behind the crate. Once there, he reached up and felt around for the magna clamps, grabbed them and ran for the doors once more.

He fell. For one awful moment, Rose thought he'd been hit. But then he threw an arm out, he'd only tripped on a Cyberman. Rose watched and prayed silently and he got his bearings as fast as he could, grabbed the clamps once more and ran back to her.

Seconds later, he pulled on his 3D glasses and ran back to have one last look. He was just in time to see Dalek Sec turn it's eye stalk skyward and shout "OPEN THE ROOF!" Some piece of hacking on the Dalek's part had got into the system of the remote roof controls and the thing slid open. "ELEVATE!" It ordered and the Cult Of Scaro rose up and out, taking the Ark with them.

"form rings around the building" ordered the Cyberleader. "massed concentration of fire may break through"

"Timelord science." The Doctor muttered. "What timelord science?" He turned away and took off down the corridor once more. "We need to see what they're up to. We have to get back to the top floor."

"It's 48 floors!" Cried Jackie. "Believe me, I've done 'em all."

Jake popped his head round a corner. "We could always take the lift."

Minutes later, they hurried into the, now deserted, lever room and watched through the windows as the Daleks came to a stop a hundred metres from the window but on the same level. They watched as the Ark began to spin. Then a Dalek shot out of it. Then another. Then it became a steady stream of Daleks, shooting out like sparks from a Catherine wheel.

"Timelor science." The Doctor realised. "Bigger on the inside."

"What, so the timelords put those Daleks there? Why?" Said Mickey.

"It's a prison ship."

"How did they capture Daleks?"

"And wat did they need them for?" Said Mickey.

The Doctor dodged those two questions. There were several possibilities, none of them good.

Realising his evasiveness, Rose asked a new question. "How many Daleks?"

"Millions."

The Daleks rapidly moved into formation and spread out across London. In the streets below, the Cybermen stood in formation and aimed their guns skyward. Further out, the army were using the distraction to hurriedly regroup, while bands of curious civilians had come out of hiding to see what was going on.

"EXTERMINATE ALL LIFE FORMS BELOW." Sec ordered.

The Daleks swept down, and began exterminating left right and centre. Human and Cyberman.

The Cybermen quickly analysed their flight pasterns and returned the most efficient anti aircraft fire they could, concentrating their fire as much as possible. The Daleks, lacking some of the upgrades of the Cult Of Scaro and forced to pour some of the shield power into anti gravity, couldn't withstand this barrage and at last the Cybermen were able to take some of them out. Albeiet, at a slower pace than then were being hit.

The skies over London lit up more fiercely than the Blitz.

"That's it." Said Pete. This world's going to crash and burn. There's nothing we can do. We're going home." He tossed a button to Jackie. "Jacks, take this, you're coming with us."

"But they're destroying the city." Said Jackie.

"I forgot you could argue. It's not just the city, love, it's the whole world. But there's another world. Just waiting for you Jacks, and it's safe. Just as long as the Doctor closes the breech. Doctor? You ready?"

The Doctor was watching the scene outside through his 3D glasses. He spun round now, with a massive grin plastered on his face. "Oh, I'm ready!" He hurried over to the computers. "I've got all the equipment I need right here, thank you Torchwood. Close off both universes."

"System reboot activated." Said the machine.

"But we can't just leave." Said Rose. "What about the Daleks, and the Cybermen?"

"They're part of the problem and that, makes them part of the solution! Oh yes." He laughed. "Well? Isn't anyone going to ask about the 3D glasses?"

"Whyat's with the 3D glasses?" Said Rose

"I can see, that's what! because we've got two separate worlds, but in between the two separate worlds, we've got the Void. That's where the Daleks were hiding. And the Cybermen travelled through the Void to get here. And you lot, one world to another, via the Void. Oh, I like that. Via the Void. Look..."

He handed her the glasses. Looking at her hands through them, Rose could see a thick orange mist surrounding them. When she moved her arm, the stuff followed.

"I've been through it. Do you see?" He said. Indead, he too had this mist.

"What is it?"

"Void stuff."

"Like, er, background radiation!"

"That's it. Look at the others."

She turned to look at the rest, each of whom had a similar mist around them.

"And the only one who hasn't been through it... Your mother. First time she's looked normal in her life."

"Oy!" Said Jackie.

"The Daleks lived inside the void, they're swimming with it. Cybermen too. We just open up the void, reverse. Everything with void stuff gets sucked inside."

"Pulling 'em all in!"

"Pulling 'em in!"

"Sorry, but what's the void?" Mickey interrupted.

"The dead space. Some people call it hell."

"So you're sending the Daleks and the Cybermen to hell? I told you he was good."

But as they spoke, the full reality of what the Doctor was suggesting dawned on Rose. She'd been with him two years and could follow his mindset. "But... It's like you said, we're all covered with this stuff. We'll get sucked in."

The Doctor sighed. "And that's why you've got to go. Back to Pete's world. Hey, we should call it that. Pete's World. I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side.

"And then you close it, for good?" Said Pete.

"The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff. In the end it'll close itself. And that's it. Kaput."

"But you stay on this side?" Said Rose.

"But you'll get pulled in." Said Mickey.

The Doctor held up the magna clamps he'd got from downstairs. "That's why I got these. I'll just have to hold on tight. I've been doing it all my life."

Rose was getting increasingly pale. "I'm supposed to go."

"Yeah."

"To another world, and then it gets sealed off."

"Yeah."

"Forever. That's not going to happen."

At this point, the Cybermen took out a Dalek right next to the building. It slammed into the window they were stood by as it fell.

"We haven't got time to argue." Said Pete "The plan works. We're going. You too. All of us."

"No, I'm not leaving here." Rose protested.

"I'm not going without her." Added Jackie.

"Oh, my God. We're going!" Shouted Pete.

"I've had twenty years without you, so button it. I'm not leaving her." Shouted Jackie.

"You've got to."

"Well, that's tough!"

"Mum." Said Rose. "I've had a life with you for nineteen years, but then I met the Doctor, and all the things I've seen him do for me, for you, for all of us. For the whole stupid planet and every planet out there. He does it alone, mum. But not anymore, because now he's got me."

As she spoke, the Doctor nodded at Pete, who put his hand on a button. The Doctor walked up behind Rose and slid one over her head.

"Hey what are you..." She had time to say, before Pete hit the button and they all vanished from the universe, leaving the Doctor behind.


End file.
